Around 1975 costings were done to build a range similar to the range the club had vacated at Albion and the estimate was around $200,000. The MPC was fortunate to obtain a grant from the State Government’s Youth Sport and Recreation Department of $40,000 to assist with the initial building costs associated with establishing a new range on the site. Additionally, the club had raised about $12,000 itself towards setting up a range so it appeared the club had sufficient funds to go ahead with the  construction works. The land was zoned at the time as ‘General Industrial’, and this categorisation had to be changed to
‘Recreational’. This took about two years to achieve as the Lands Department were historically slow.

In 1976 the Melbourne Pistol Club officially relocated to the newly leased site at Todd Road Port Melbourne which at that time was simply a ‘blank slate’. The first work undertaken by the members was to put up a cyclone fence around the perimeter and to erect a compound about twenty metres square of chain wire with pipe frame posts and gates in which to store all the material saved from the old range in the quarry at Albion. (At this stage the Go Cart track was not there, and the Westgate bridge was still under construction).  

Around this time negotiations were made with the newly formed Springvale Pistol Club who were hoping to build a range at Springvale and had obtained a grant of $33,000 from the Government to do this. Melbourne Pistol Club had saved $40,000 to build the Todd Road range so it was a wise move to combine the two clubs and concentrate on building one good range. This was achieved and the name of Melbourne International Shooting Club was adopted. Tibor Gonczol was made President and Des Boseley took on the job of Secretary as Rod Johnson had become the Victorian Amateur Pistol Association Secretary. At this stage a Co-operative Society was formed with each club member buying $100 worth of shares to form capital which could be used to obtain bank loans against if the need arose for further range works. Fortunately, this was never needed as the 240 club members paying their annual fees provided sufficient building funds. 

MISC also obtained a $10,000 grant from the Victorian Government that was used to build the mounds along the South Boundary with fill which came from the Metro Train Loop Project which was under construction at the time.

The first major construction work was on the 25m floating floor slab, in some places it was nearly 400mm thick and some of us believed you could drive a tank on it without it moving.

When the shooting shed floor had been cast in concrete by contractors, the sites for the baffle supports were marked out. Small teams of club members dug out the support trenches which were three and a half metres long, half a metre wide and half a metre deep. Whilst digging these trenches some interesting items were found, mostly cast iron bits rejected from the GMH foundry.

Rail was purchased from the Railways for the baffle supports thanks to Rod Johnson’s contacts. Work then started on making the baffle supports which consisted of three-metre long bases with an upright column three and a half metres high welded in the centre of it. This was heavy work so a wheeled gantry was constructed out of old range pipe and with it chain blocks were used to lift the columns up for welding. When complete each unit was dropped down from the gantry approximately where it would be used. This was the quality test. If the column stayed welded it passed the test. The gantry with column was towed around the site attached to the towbar of a member’s car.

While the range was being built the members kept up their skills by shooting Air Pistol at night-time in various venues. These were: The Sports Hall at Albert Park; (also used for VAPA monthly meetings); the Lebanese Church at Collingwood; the Sea Scouts building at Maribyrnong and the YMCA hall at Coventry Street South Melbourne.

To shoot at these venues a set of portable target frames were made and these could be assembled and put up in about twenty minutes. Separate trestle tables were used for all these practice nights and were stored in handy niches close by. These were also used at Todd Road when the 25M-range was able to be used at night with extension lead lights from the single power point. A BBQ was usually run on these nights and whole families took part in these making it a jolly evening for all involved.

Temporary toilets a large septic tank and a tool shed were purchased when the West Gate bridge builders sold off their surplus equipment. These were brought to the range and installed for club use. As there was no water main in Todd Road a service had to be laid from Lorimer St to the range. The cost was $3,700.  Contractor David Green convinced Port Melbourne Council that poly pipe would be OK for supply, with a support letter from MMBW.

The range walls and overhead baffles were constructed of Black Butt timber which was brought down from Queensland. It cost a small fortune but was tested and could not be penetrated by normal target pistol loads and was very weatherproof out in the open. The planks for the baffles were very heavy and it took a whole team of members to hoist them into position using our old gantry from the support manufacture. Several methods of securing them together were tried before the angled weather board system was hit on. With enough bolts they stayed tight and there were no gaps for projectiles to get through. The latest system of straight boards with timber blanks behind them does the job but would have been a lot more work and expense.

The first clubhouse was a second-hand portable office block – which came to be known as ‘the green shed’. After the clubhouse was built much later, the green shed became a tool and storage shed.